Monday, June 02, 2014

Apple's team of tastemakers, filling a void left by Steve Jobs - The Economic Times

Innovate different

"In the past, Jobs stood as Apple's sole authority on taste, the perfectionist who obsessed over every color and every material in every product, and whose interests ranged across cultural categories, from industrial design to music to retailing. His decisions weren't always right - he was initially opposed to third-party apps on the iPhone, among other errors - but the perception that he had personally shaped customers' devices was, at the very least, a handy marketing tool for Apple. Technology is complicated, and in a crowded market, every Apple product stood out with an implicit guarantee. Jobs, a tastemaker like no other, had taken care of all the hard work. Now you just had to use it.

In picking up gurus from fashion and music, and by emphasizing Apple's commitment to human curation over algorithmic decision-making, Cook may be aiming to optimize what has always been Apple's core strength, and what it lost when Jobs died: Human perspective and taste. Jony Ive, Angela Ahrendts, Paul Deneve, Ben Shaffer, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine - think of them as Apple's Jobs Team."